“And I’m Paul.” He was next in line for a shake. “And this back here is Faith Chill, although her Christian name is Mick.”
“You can call me either, honey.” Mick did not extend her hand. “But most call me Mick. Easier to remember one name.”
“You have beautiful makeup,” Thelma said.
“Why, thank you! That’s a big honor coming from someone as effortlessly dolled up as you. Why don’t you drop by our church sometime? Whereabouts are you, Thelma?”
She was almost hesitant to respond. “Van Nuys.”
“Well, shoot, we’re only a couple of miles from there! You’ve gotta come hear one of Liz’s sermons! She has this great one about the Epistle of James!”
Was this fate? Was there really a God, and had He directed Thelma here? Dare she get her hopes up?
“James 1 has gotten me throughsomuch.” Thelma clutched the end of the table, bending down to look Pastor Liz right in the eyes. “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials…”
With a warm countenance, the pastor finished, “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
Thelma stood back up. “I’ve been through so much this year. I kept thinking about God, and my faith, but it seemed impossible to balance with… the state of the world, shall we say.”
“We get a lot of that,” Paul said.
“Honey, you and I have barked up the same tree,” Mick agreed. “James 1. I gotta remember that. I’m terrible at remembering actual scripture. Too many Liza lyrics in my head. Oh! By the way! We’re having a drag gospel show at the church to close out Pride at the end of the month. You should come!”
While Mick spoke, Pastor Liz cocked her head, taking cautious stock of the way Thelma reacted to certain things—and how she clutched the free black T-shirt she had won from spinning the prize wheel.
“Are you a member of the community?” she asked.
The others fell silent as Thelma sized up that question. “If you mean Lutheranism, well, I suppose it will never truly leave me…”
“I meant the LGBT community.”
Thelma remained silent.
“I just want you to know that you would be absolutely welcomed to our community, Thelma. You wouldn’t be judged for who you are or who you love. Your past is yours, but your future is what you make of it.”
Thelma unfolded the T-shirt, staring at the image of the wordsLOVE IS LOVEon top of the cross. She noticed that John 6:37 was referenced at the bottom.”
As if she knew what Thelma was looking at, Pastor Liz quoted, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
After folding the T-shirt up again, Thelma held it close to her chest, remembering how many of these same scriptures were twisted and maligned by even the most well-meaning people of her old congregations.They came from another time,she reminded herself.Just like me.
She didn’t realize that she was on the verge of tears until Mick stepped out from behind the table, offering Thelma some of the breeze from her fan. “You look like you could use a hug.”
Thelma sniffed. “That would be nice, thank you.”
When Megan found her a minute later, she saw her grandmother in the big, muscular arms of a drag queen who consoled her with wordless sounds as Thelma quietly cried against sequins and body glitter. Mick’s hug was as tight as it was reassuring, and all Thelma could think about was how long it had been since someone really, truly understood her.
Maybe nobody on Earth could understand her yet—but up there, in the sky? Someone might be watching over her, after all.
She didn’t know if it was God, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. It could have been Sandy. Hell, it could have been Bill, taking heavenly pity on her. But what mattered was that Thelma knew she was not alone as long as she believed in something beyond herself.
Beyond this silly time-traveling nonsense.Whether by grace of God or a quirk in the space-time continuum as dictated by physics, she was here, she was experiencing it… but she wasn’t alone.
Never again would she be so alone as long as she had faith in herself. In her steadfastness.
Chapter fifteen
Ghosts
